Drew Brees and the NFLPA Knew About the Sean Pamphilon Audio Before It Was Released

Michael Silver of Yahoo, who also first broke the audio recording of Gregg Williams, now has the story behind that release. Individual names were blurred out of the original released audio, but Roman Harper and Jo-Lonn Dunbar were two names that were identified by Gregg Williams as earning money for “whacks” in the playoff game against Detroit.

However, according to players quoted in Silver’s article, a “whack” isn’t a bounty hit for injuring a player, but rather a performance measure similar to a pancake block. That would still be pay for performance measures that would still circumvent the salary cap, but the NFLPA would dispute that those are bounty hits.

Before the release, Pamphilon had met with Drew Brees and NFLPA leaders who did not discourage the release of the audio, believing at the time it would help them defend against players by showing Williams’ actions. However, the timing became bad when the release coincided with the appeal of the suspensions for Sean Payton, Gregg Williams, and Joe Vitt. According to the Silver, Payton also encouraged the players to tell the truth during the investigation.